The Official Panasonic U50/54 Owners' Thread - Page 21

I'm having some problems with getting a connection with my AV receiver. I'm using a Denon 3312. I'm not sure if it's the TV or the receiver yet, but I'm fairly certain it's the TV. Basically I have to move the HDMI cable back and forth between the 2 ports until it picks up the signal and brings up the Denon menu. Then I can navigate the Denon menu as long as I want it seems, but as soon as I connect a cable to the Denon to try and get a source set up, the screen blacks out and it says no signal. Then the HDMI in on the TV just seems to stop working period for a bit. Even if I run a cable direct from a PS3 to the TV. Anyone at least have some advice on how I can troubleshoot this?

I thought it might be faulty HDMI cables a while back when the connection kept turning off and on in the middle of games or movies, and I had to play with the connections a bit to get it working again. It seems that the signal shutting off would happen whenever someone walked close by the set and the floor vibrated. I ordered a few cables with redmere from Monoprice thinking that might solve it, and I can't even get these ones to establish a connection with the PS3 and TV. Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I think I have or had the same issue. No Signal error message. I've got a BDP to a Yamaha receiver out to the tv. What I've found is that it is a handshake issue with the HDMI signal. I have to turn on the tv first, then the receiver, then the BDP. From what I've read, if the BDP starts up with a copyrighted disc and it doesn't show a complete connection to the tv, it won't send the signal. I've had it run fine for 30 minutes or more then cut out. But if I follow the power on sequence above, it doesn't mess up, or at least hasn't with the past 3 or 4 blurays. Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

I picked up a 60pu54 last week at Costco and love the picture, however there is one thing that has been bothering me. The left side of the screen has a solid 1/2 inch border from the picture to the edge of the screen. It is noticeable on both cable and Xbox content. The TV's menu displays slightly closer to the edge. The other sides have a gap, but are smaller..about 1/4 inch. Has anyone else noticed this? This is the only issue I've noticed and really hope to not have to lug this thing back to the store.

I believe this is a normal phenomenon. If you have the anti-image retention option "Pixel Orbiter" turned on, you may see the whole picture move around from right to left and top to bottom as it does its thing. Mine moves about 0.25" from time to time on my 50". It seems to do it at scene changes on broadcast/cable/digital content and isn't noticeable to me unless I go looking for it.

Others may have or have had differing experiences...

I turned off the pixel orbiter option but the gap did not change. I will play with it more tomorrow and see if it doesn't change.

Just picked up a TC-60U54 set and watching various channels seems like there is a bit of an issue with motion blur. I've switched back and forth between cinema and custom modes but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I haven't tried any Blu-ray sources yet, but watch stuff on HBO or the AFC wildcard game, movement seems blurry and, for player's names (for example) also seem a little blurry. Is this normal with a new set that has less than 5 hours on it or is there a magic setting somewhere i've missed?

My settings right now are:
Mode: Cinema
Contrast: 50
Brightness: 50
Color:43
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0
Color temp: Normal
Color Mgmt, CATS, Video Nr: off

Format: Full
HD Size 1
HDMI : Non Standard
Content: Graphics

Color Matrix: HD
Block NR: Off
Mosquito NR: Off
Black Level: Light


I upgraded from a TC-42PZ700U and the picture quality was excellent, this set doesn't seem like it's as sharp as I would expect.

I'm kind new to messing with these settings so be gentle =)

thanks,
Tim
Edited by pro50mustang - 1/5/13 at 4:17pm

Hey man, did you end up tweaking your settings at all?

My values are the almost identical to yours, so I was curious to see what you did. My original rdrv is maxed out at FF as well.. Though I wonder if we could achieve the same results by dropping gdrv down to make up the difference.

Btw, I also have the U54, from Sam's.. 60 inch.

I thought I was seeing the same sort of thing when I first bought my set.

I'll preface this by saying that I may just be experiencing some kind of placebo effect, but it looked to me that the picture quality improved after the first 80-120 hours or so. I wasn't completely happy with certain sports, mainly football and basketball, but at 400+ hours in, I'm not really noticing any of the motion issues that bothered me the for the first week or two. Again, maybe I just started getting used to to the tv and its quirks, but I'd swear that there was noticeable improvement after I put about 100 hours on it.

Well I found a couple of things, my DirecTV receiver reverted back to 480p for some unknown reason when I set up this new TV, so that had a major impact on picture clarity. Even after switching back to 1080i, the picture looked a little blurry but not nearly as bas as it was. Putting as many hours on it as I could this weekend it seems to have gotten progressively better (or my eyes have adjusted to it). Blu-ray via PS3 didn't appear to have the same issues with blurriness or clarity, just my HD receiver, so that kind of threw me off thinking it was source-related. Either way, I'm happy with this set, and it seems to get better and better each day.

I ended up using settings from the ut5o thread lol
post #250
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412033/the-official-panasonic-ut50-settings-issues-thread/240

My mother needed a new TV, as her 36" Toshiba CRT beast finally quit on her after 11 years of reliable service. In that time, she's had zero service calls, and was impressed enough by that fact alone, to want another Toshiba. She's 80 and wanted the same TV. I told her that they don't really make them anymore, took her up to BB last Friday and she got so confused, she almost started crying. I told her to just look at the pictures, find one she thought was nice, and I'd talk to the sales geek. We were about 12 feet away, and she was complaining about how bright the LCD-LED were, then her eye caught the 50U50 and she pretty much locked onto it. It was right in her price range, of course the geek went on about glare and dull picture, so I reminded him that she'd had nothing but glass screens, and wouldn't even notice any glare. Besides the room the TV would be in was what I consider Plasma Friendly, and as for "dullness" I laughed and said "From what she's coming from, this set looks like a bright sunny day." He quieted down then so she bought it. Had it delivered today, (free delivery and haul away of the beast, which was nice.) Delivery men were very professional, got the beast out and put the stand together, bolted the TV to it, then said something I'd never heard of..."Please leave this set unplugged until it comes to room temperature." He explained that it was so cold...and it really was....that the sudden expansion from heating up the CB's could cause a malfunction. Don't know if that's true, but I did let it sit for 4 hours. Plugged it in, did the channel search....now mind you, she runs TWC directly from the line into the TV, no cable box....and she absolutely refuses to pay any extra for a "box that gives me stations I don't have any interest in." She watches NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS and USA. The tuner was able to get the HD feeds from NBC, ABC, FOX and CBS, so she's happy and that's what matters. Now about the set....I'm impressed. Ran through a couple of different peoples settings on here, found one that'll do for the initial 100 hours, then I'll tweak it as much as possible. One question however...the 50U50, if it does not have a menu code to access the service menu, how does the ISF do a pro calibration? Or is this one of those "set it as well as you can and that's it", TV's?
Edited by Xukuth - 1/7/13 at 7:40pm

Regarding the delivery person's advice to not turn it on for a few hours...

I had mine delivered in early December (I'm in Minnesota) and my delivery guy said the same thing. It wasn't a terrible price to pay and it came on and has worked flawlessly ever since.

Good TV and easy to adjust to my preferences...

Good luck with yours!

Thanks! It looks great so far, in any lighting situation. Regarding the service menu, it helps to really read the instructions I've found to enter it. I was pressing the VOL- button on the remote, not the TV itself. DOH!!

I was hoping for 60" set as I have the 50". What neck of the woods are you in? Local Costco has the 55" UT only (regular set not specificaly made for warehouse clubs).

I would buy a 50U50 in a minute, if I thought I could put up with the buzz sound that many of them emit. I am very, very sensitive to electronic buzz/hum noises. They drive me crazy.

I really like the picture quality, I am coming from a CRT-RP and love those deep blacks. The price is great. Best bang for the buck on PQ by a mile. Don't care about burn-in as I never game and I view many different stations.

If I only knew the one I would get would not drive me screaming into the night with its buzz. I could put up with the occasional white screen loader buzzing. It's the constant buzz that would get to me. I know it is low in many sets. But it keeps me from pulling the trigger.

Update to my original post below: I've been running those YouTube vidoes non-stop all weekend and running the scroll bar intermitently. I also accessed the service menu to see operating hours, which is at 252 (MUCH higher than I anticipated). The ghosted image is finally starting to fade dramatically and it looks like I'll be in the clear soon enough. I'm still curious as to when it will be safe to play the game again.

When i finally scrub out that IR, are those phosphors more prone to IR because of this incident?
Now that I've logged over 250 hours on the set, can I stop babysitting it so closely?

--

I think this is the right thread, new user here

I picked up a Viera p50U50 during Amazon's Black Friday sales. I love the set, the picture is flat out gorgeous, but a combination of vacation from work and the new Call of Duty resulted in the game's hud being retained on the screen. After I noticed it, i stopped playing the game and now am very conscious about static images in programming and games. Either way, its only too late that I've found all the information about breaking in the set.

I've watched hours and hours of TV and movies since the image of the hud started being retained, but it's not going away. It's certainly faded, it's still there. Now, i'm building a YouTube playlist (consisting of the links below) which I'm playing on repeat through the night (ive got my PC hooked into the second HDMI input) trying to break it in. As much as i love kicking back, turning off my brain to play call of duty, im putting it on hold until that image of the hud goes away

some questions:
have I done permanent damage to my TV?
Will the youtube playlist, if I can rack ~100 hours on it, be analogous to breaking it ?
I've been playing Xbox on Game mode - I've read that the high contrast levels can be harmful until the TV is broken in, is that true?



My youtube break in playlist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTmS-hKzwQ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k_iO_K72_I&list=PLTr7n5yyRPUNqp1P8pjBK4iTPfgKN0rs2&index=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4gE_Xez-fQ&list=PLTr7n5yyRPUNqp1P8pjBK4iTPfgKN0rs2
Edited by MrCompletely - 1/13/13 at 4:05pm

Tom,
I realize this wouldn't be any guarantee but I picked up a 60U50 at Sam's Club yesterday and have been running it non-stop for the last 20 hours (contrast at break-in level 55). At least in mine, there is absolutely no buzz at all (as in zero) even with my ear at the back of the screen and sound turned off. I plan on reviewing other aspects after I've had a couple more days of use.

Edit: The Sam's version is 60U54 (not 50, sorry)

Hey, this is my first post! Been lurking and doing a lot of reading on various models, lcd/led and plasma. Ihave a Sony 50xbr950 and love it! I

Sorry set my phone down and sent an incomplete post! Anyways I was wondering how this 50/54 has been doing for all of you! Not much lately on pq or ir problems or anything else. makes me think this set is a winner! I just want a little more reasurance if I were to take the plunge! I'm going back and forth on the u50 and the ut50. I'm gonna be using this tv for gaming and movies. Help me decide!

I purchased the TC-60PU54 last week at Sam's Club and have a little over 60 hours on it (still breaking it in). My main uses are regular TV (Direct TV) and movies (standard DVD & Bluray) with no gaming at all. It replaced a 60" Sony SXRD RP. Here's a couple quick thoughts about my decision process - of course they may not apply to you at all.

The main differences I saw between the U and UT were the Internet connectivity (apps etc.) and the "louvered" panel type which was said to help reduce screen glare in some environments, and 3D capability. The additional cost to me was roughly $540 tax-included. I viewed both as a bargain so the money really wasn't an issue except from a value perspective. In other words, there had to be at least some benefit (to me) to spend the extra money.

Since I store most/all of my movies on a media player that has Netflix/Hulu etc, the value of the Internet apps was little or none. Media connectivity is built into most DVD players now, or an add-on box can be purchased for less than $100 (Roku, WD, Neo, etc.).

For me at least, 3D is one of those "once in awhile it may be fun" gimmicks. I realize some people like it and are willing to actually pay money for it. I'm just not one of them so the non-3D thing never entered my mind. It may have gaming benefits so perhaps someone else could comment on that.

As for the "glare control" benefits, my setup is a large room with windows on either end. There are no windows behind the TV, and none behind the seating area facing the screen. I did have some concerns about screen reflections but figured I could control them fairly well. Also, while I do watch TV during the day it isn't really critical viewing. Movie watching is usually always at night. Anyway, it just seemed like a lot of money for "some additional" glare/reflection control. As it has turned out, glare has not been an issue at all (some is inevitable but the screen brightness and color depth more than compensate).

So far, after 60 or so hours, I couldn't be happier with the buying decision. The Sony SXRD it replaced was an outstanding TV picture quality-wise but it was simply not in the same league as the Panasonic. As to whether the UT over the U is the better way to go, it depends on the user and what's important to them. I already have Internet access available via my media player, don't have any use for 3D, and can control most/all of any glare that pops up - so the UT model just wasn't worth it. If some/all of those things are important to you, then the UT is the way to go. Picture-quality-wise, I think they are roughly equal so I don't think you can make a mistake going with either one.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide.

how is the glare on these sets?

So I've had this TV (TC-50pu54) since early November and I followed all the proper first 100 hour use instructions. Just last night I fell asleep with the TV on the NFL channel.

Now it had burned in the ticker at the bottom of the screen and the left side of the panel has the news ticker column burnt in as well...

I tried scrolling bar feature for 15m followed by a full screen HD movie on repeat for 3 hours...

No change. Nothing.

This thing is going back to Costco. Wtf? Anyone else have this happen? I paid 499.99 + tax for this when it was on sale for it's lowest price the week before black Friday. What would you guys do? Return it and pay full price but get something that won't have these issues? Maybe go the way of LED instead of plasma (too many issues with plasma)?

I wouldn't bash plasmas too bad. Its your fault it happened. Other than leaving a video game on pause for hrs that's about the worst thing you could do. Did you have the tv set to turn off after 4 hrs of inactivity? When you do return it don't tell them what happened. If they determine that the burn in is due to neglect, they don't have to take it back.

That's a little ridiculous sounding, it couldn't have been on this channel for more than 3-4 hours at the most. I understand that plasmas are susceptible to IR but within this short timeframe it shouldn't be permanent.

You're saying I've ruined my TV now since it was on this particular channel?

I think this is a cheaply made plasma and I think its MORE susceptible to IR than other higher quality panels considering how cheap this thing dropped to and the fact that by the end of November this particular model dropped of the shelves of every store and basically disappeared into thin air. Smells like a dud that even Penny knew about...

Oops dupe post

I agree that within 3-4 hrs it should not have burn in. IR almost certainly. Logos and tickers should be avoided for long periods of constant watching. NFL Channel has both and is notorious for ir.

This model disappeared in November because they stopped producing all models at that time like they always do and they sold out quickly. Everyone knows this is the best bargain to be had.

While I am a plasma noob, and this particular model has been my introduction to plasmas, I do in fact favor plasmas and have grown quite fond of this display.

If I were to spring for an ST50 after I return this one, do you think it will burn-in as quickly??

There is some variation from panel to panel bt I would not expect the ST to be much improved in this area. You are taking a risk in what you did with any plasma. I don't care if it costs $5000. Plasma may just not be for you.
btw I doubt you have burn in with that amount of time. Severe ir most likely and it will not go away in a few hrs. I would watch as much full content without logos and tickers as you can for a while and run the slides at all times when you are not watching. Hopefully in a couple of days you will notice a big improvement.
Edited by Bond 007 - 1/16/13 at 6:36am